Bilsthorpe memories
Here are memories of Bilsthorpe and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Bilsthorpe or a Bilsthorpe photo.
SCHOOL LIFE LIVING IN BILSTHORPE
My earliest memory was at the age of 5. I vividly remember sqeezing through the school railings at the bottom of my garden to go to school. My teacher was a lady called Mrs Malkin, she was very nice and kind to us all in her class. Someone would bring in flowers every day to brighten up the classroom.
In those days you would work with a piece of slate and chalk and life could be very strict. Every time a teacher came into the room you would have to stand up and greet them accordingly and sit down when told. At around 11 o'clock the whole school would get a small bottle of milk to drink, it being delivered by the elder boys in school who would look at a little board on the blackboard to see how many was required.
No matter what the weather, at playtime you were sent out into the yard to play. Many a time you would come in soaking wet... Read more
Memories of Nottinghamshire
Scout Camp
The 79th Boy Scout Group of which my father Bert Lacey was Scout master for on a number of years used to take us camping on a farm close to Farnsfield, I think it was called Combes Farm. We would get there down a lane off the Ollerton Road. If any none remembers this camp site please let me know. As far as I know my paternal grandmother came from Farnsfield, a lady by the name of Alice Bonser who married a Mr Lacey and moved to Netherfield.
Farming From Horses to Electronics.
My grandfather G. A. Smith took the tenancy of Springs Farm on Edingley Moor in 1931, when I was six months old. A builder by trade, and a sergeant in the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry during the First World War, he farmed entirely with horses and the hand-graft of his sons and daughters, not to mention his wife Aggie. In 1934 agricultural depression was at its worst and he went back to his trade and his son-in-law, my father David Butler (Jack) Watts took over the tenancy. The farm was then part of the Hexgreave Estate. Jack, a champion ploughman from Derbyshire, brought an old Fordson with him to supplement the horses, and was able to start farming with a contract with the new Milk Marketing Board. The farm then had its own watermill, and by gradually adding labour-saving machinery and another tractor Jack was able to get established. I was eight when the war started, and in August 1940 the farm was straddled with about 180 incendiary bombs, possibly jettisoned... Read more
Ancestors
My ancestors were farming in Edwinstowe in 1662. I am trying to find out where they were living at the time. They were William and Anne Snowden and are listed in parish records at the time. Wouldn't it be fun to see where they lived?
If anyone knows how I can find out, I would appreciate the help.
Their son, John Snowden (born in Edwinstowe) was the first to emigrate to the US. He landed in Philadelphia before William Penn.
I stayed in Edwinstowe at the Robin Hood Inn in 2003. This was before I knew my roots were there. I walked Sherwood Forest and really enjoyed the friendly people, the history and the scenery. I love the church and the cemetery (I guess I should have checked the names on the tombstones).
I shall return.
Dave Snowden
My Edwinstowe Years
My first memories were living at 56, 4th Avenue aged approx six years. We were very poor and my mother had many days when she fed us but didn't eat herself, even though my father worked seven days a week at Thoresby Pit. I remember our next-door neighbors were called Marsden and the teenage daugher used to stain her legs and paint a line up the back so that they looked like nylons with seams, a fascinating thrill for a watching young boy. We then moved to 20 Fourth Avenue, just up the road, all very handy as I went to St Mary's Church School just up the lane by the Post Office onto Mansfield Road. Both happy and unhappy days, which are long ago. After school finished (1959) I initially sarted work as a plumber's apprentice with Grice Brothers, Builders in Ollerton but after a few months (May 1960) I had left and Joined the RAF as a Boy Entrant and my parents moved to Mansfield. Bye Bye,... Read more
Happy Childhood Memories
My life in Edwinstowe started in 1953. My father was starting a new job of caretaker at King Edwin School, l was three years old. My new friend was Jean Matkin whose father also worked at the school, we had many happy hours playing and village life was good, the miners so friendly and helpfull with the odd help with coal, and in winter time my dad made a sledge so that we could get milk etc from the Co-op shop at the other end of the village. I loved living there and still think about the people and times there, the lovely forest and happy days. We moved back to Nottingham in 1961, then in 1965 to Morecambe In Lancs, still here but Edwinstowe will never leave me. If anyone reading this remembers me or my parents Eric and Joan Brown it would be lovely to hear from you. lindabrown50@hotmail.co.uk
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